Quick (Likely) Easy Monitor Blinking Question

[KingMedicine]

so i have 2 CRT Synchmaster monitors i run.

The last couple days, they have randomly started blinking (at the same intervals) off and on after windows boots up and my desktop is up. The monitors will go from normal to black to normal to black with about 1/2 second in between. I have to shut down the computer (which is no easy task when your screens are blinking like crazy) and restart it.

This blinking thing is new in the past couple days. I think it's happened about 5 times in the past 2 days. It's always started blinking within 2 minutes of windows booting up. And if it doesnt start blinking within the first 2 minutes or so, it will be fine (no blinking at all for several hours) until i restart the computer. Then, if its blinking after start up, i reboot and sometimes its fine and sometimes it starts blinking again.

this is a new PC with a p4 processor. other than a bunch of poker sites, this computer doesnt have that much on it. let me know if i need more info for a diagnosis (i dont know too much about computers).

Thanks in advance for any advice!

KingMedicine

[Nomad84]

[ QUOTE ]
I have to shut down the computer (which is no easy task when your screens are blinking like crazy) and restart it.

[/ QUOTE ]

I can't help much, but shutting down with no display is pretty easy using the keyboard. Start>up>enter>u to turn it off. Start>up>enter>r to restart.

[KingMedicine]

thanks for that tip - it will save me a little frustration.

it did the blinking thing again this morning, but this time it waited until about 8 minutes after i logged in and started up 8 tables. i got blinded down for about 5-8 minutes (a nice way to start 8 SNGs) before i got it working properly again.

any help of solving this mess would be greatly greatly appreciated.

thanks!

[KingMedicine]

bump.

cmon, someone can tell what the frick is going on.

frick.

[molawn2mo]

I've had this exact problem on and off for several months. I am running a dual monitor setup and I thought that it might be due to that. It "appeared" to me that the problem tended to rear itself when my computers were warm, either from being in an 80 degree environment or that they were running for 12 hours in normal environment. Then the other day, after I had plugged in a portible fan near the CPU and blew air at the CPU, it was apparant that I had caused the monitor blicking to occur. It appears that the waves of air may be causing something within the unit to jiggle - maybe the monitor/video card?

Anyway, that's where I am at, FWIW.

Any help would be appreciated.

[KingMedicine]

yea, its definitely NOT the heat that causes this. mine only blink when i first turn on the computer in the morning.

ive unfastened and refastened all of the connections on the outside of the case and monitors, so if the problem has to do with something wiggling, it must be in the inside of the case. as you mentioned, it quite possibly could be the video card itself.

another interesting thing ive learned about the problem in the past couple days is this:

so when i wake up and boot up the computer and turn on the monitors, they start blinking within 10 minutes. i shut down the computer and reboot. sometimes they blink again and i have to reboot again, sometimes they dont.

BUT, sometimes when im trying to shut down the computer from the start menu, i will click "shut down" (or "turn off" or whatever it says) and it WONT shut down and it DOES make the blinking stop for good - its like i hit the "quit blinking motherfuckers" button instead of the shut down button. This makes me think its not something wiggling inside, but something to do with the computer itself.

someone must know about this sort of thing. i called the best buy computer donks and they didnt really have anythign helpful to say, but theyre not as smart as the 2+2 computer donks, so im still holding out hope for help here.

[KingMedicine]

.

[Zinzan]

sorry, dude, no idea.

-Z

[KingMedicine]

well, at least you bumped it for me and now i can bump this again.

someone here knows whats up. i will bump this 6000 times until someone helps me. cmon you bastids.

[Reef]

my laptop monitor also flickers to black every once in awhile. It's annoying as hell. I usually tilt the screen back and then forward again to get rid of it.

wish I knew what was wrong

[sleight]

How old are the CRTs? I have a recurring problem here at work where fairly old monitors will blink off into the orange no signal mode, then click back. Every time this has happens it continues to escalate until finally they just end up in sleep mode forever (their souls residing wherever dead pieces of monkey%&@!# go).

Rereading your original post, do both of them blink on and off at the same time? Wouldn't that point towards the video card?

[KingMedicine]

both are samsung syncmaster CRTs. the first time this happened (about 3 weeks ago) i had not bought the 2nd CRT so i only had one hooked up to it. the one that was hooked up to it at that time is a new CRT (bought maybe 6 months ago). about 2 days after the blinking started on the first one (which, mind you, had never blinked in the previous months at all), i bought the 2nd CRT (for 8 tabling purposes) and it started blinking at the same exact time as the first so there is no correlation with adding the 2nd monitor and the blinking starting.

at absolutely no point does one blink without the other - which leads me to believe it's a video card issue - im just not sure what the issue is.

i think this weekend im going to open the case and make sure that sucker is plugged in tightly, i guess thats likely the answer. ill post an update after it gets figured out.